At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 70,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World to soldiers’ letters from World War II and Vietnam. Explore primary sources, visit exhibitions in person or online, or bring your class on a field trip.

Contact

The Gilder Lehrman Collection is located on the lower level of the New-York Historical Society. Please visit the Collection to examine original historical documents and artifacts in person.

The Collection is available online. Browse or search our website for catalog information and select images.

For full digital access, please visit American History, 1493-1945, a subscription-based database of the Gilder Lehrman Collection, published by Adam Matthew Digital. American History, 1493-1945 contains more than 50,000 documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection. It is designed for teaching and independent research. More than 100 universities and institutions—including Harvard University, Yale University, and the Library of Congress—have acquired a subscription to the database for their students and researchers.

We’re pleased to announce that Adam Matthew Digital has a special offer for K–12 schools of two deeply discounted pricing options, available through December 15, 2018: